An automatic loop control can be done in two ways:
The first solution, used for instance in PLL (Phase Locked Loop) applications, is a loop control signal issued from an edges sensitive phase comparator with tri-state output levels. This kind of phase comparator works according to the principle shown in FIG. 1. At each cycle of the reference frequency 12 and 22 the phase comparator output 13 and 23 goes to high level 15 or low level 25 (depending on the sign of the phase difference) during a time which is proportional to the phase difference between measuring input 11 and 21 and reference input. In FIG. 1a the measuring input is in advance versus the reference input and in FIG. 1b vice versa.
Within the loop control an external capacitor is charged or discharged via a resistor yielding a low pass filter. When the phase comparator output is High-Z (high-impedance) the respective control voltage is memorised in this capacitor. This is equivalent to an integrator function because the static phase error is equal to zero. The behaviour of such a system is good when the phase comparator works continuously. If the phase comparison is done e.g. only once per video line, the response time must be very long for stability reasons. But then the response to a phase step is worse.
The second solution provides a control signal proportional to a measured error. In case of digital error measurement, a digital to analog conversion function is required. This can be achieved by using for instance a DAC (D/A Converter) or a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) or a PDM (Pulse Density Modulation). The drawback of such a solution is the lack of the integrator function. Consequently a static phase error exists for a PLL.